Concert Review: Three Days Grace

Photo by Alicia Brown used via Creative Commons License

Life Starts Now
Bogarts – Cincinnati, OH – 4/10/2011

This concert was a classic example of why its totally worth spending money to see a band in a small venue, even if you’ve already seen them in a bigger venue.  The show, which was part of a tour that Three Days Grace is on in support of their latest album “Life Starts Now,” had a little bit of everything, for every fan.  It was a true crowd pleaser.

In addition, 3DG gives me an excuse to go on a rant and point out to my metal-brethern that think that the only good music on the planet is produced by the Big 4 (who, coincidentally, aren’t really that good….) are just flat out wrong.  Good music exists in all different flavors, tempos, and genres.  Now, granted, a lot of the music out there is bad….but theres a lot of quality stuff too, and its really independent of genre.  Open your minds people.

If nothing else, this concert proved that not only do the guys in 3DG put out a ton of solid music, but it reinforced that they are talented musicians with a variety of skills.  This concert had rock songs, ballads, Tom Petty, rap, Limp Bizkit, and electronic hand drums.  If that doesn’t peak you’re interest at least a little bit, then you should probably look up a blog about Kittens wearing socks.




The History:
Three Days Grace has historically, for me, always been like a rock-solid B.  They have three CD’s that are decent cover to cover, they are a style of music that a lot of people can get into, their songs get a lot of radio play, and no matter how annoyed I get by their latest release, I always buy their CD’s, listen to them for months, and end up putting it in a solid rotation.  I dont know….I’ve tried to find something to dislike about them….but….I just can’t.  There’s just nothing to dislike.  If someone forced me to find a criticism, it would be that they didn’t take any risks.  Their music, while all good, is just kind of safe.  It fits right in to the dead center of the rock genre, and it doesn’t stray far from there.  They aren’t pushing the envelope, or coming up with groundbreaking material that really challenges the genre at all.  In reality, they are just pumping out good song after good song…but after a while, it becomes another typical 3DG song on the radio that I will like for a while, and then move on.  But again, thats me being forced to find a flaw.  They are good at what they do, and I’m all for that.

In addition, their latest CD, Life Starts Now did hit the shelves in 2006, which coincided perfectly with the start of my concert obsession, so, I really had no choice but to fall in love with them.  Before this show at Bogarts, I had seen them several times when they were headlining at huge amphitheaters or festival venues, and their concerts were…well, they were always solid B’s.  Good music, good stage presence, good times.  But still….just good, not great.  They were the type of band where I wasn’t listening to them constantly at home, but if I saw their name on a concert bill, it was certainly made it more attractive.

Needless to say, 3DG usually had a ton of energy, and so I was very much looking forward to seeing them in a small venue.  I had a feeling that they would do very well in a smaller, more intimate venue, where they had a long set list that they could work with to create some true entertainment.  (Well, that, and it had been about 2 months since my last concert, so….really I could have been going to see Bjork and I would have been pumped).

The Venue: 
Bogart’s is another classic small venue just off the campus of the University of Cincinnati.  It is a bit tricky to get to if you don’t know where it is, and It doesn’t have the character of Pops, or the size and openness advantage of the Egyptian Room, but I always have a great time at Bogart’s.  It is a long, narrow room, meaning it’s a big more difficult to get close to the stage, and there aren’t a lot of frills or gimmicks, but it gives off the “I’m watching this band in a high school gymnasium” vibe, which can actually be kind of cool in it’s own right.  (And…strangely enough, it’s similar to the “Twista at the Wabash gymnasium, high school kids welcome” vibe that I have experienced in the past).

Bogarts – Photo by Mahfrot used via Creative Commons License

BUT, don’t get me wrong…..there are a lot of good things about Bogart’s too.  Parking is insanely easy (usually we find free parking, this time we paid $5 to park directly in front of the venue, and it came with a hidden pee spot, which, unless you’ve COMPLETELY mastered the Louis-Kisic kneel-pee, is CRUCIAL during pre-gaming).  In addition, it gets all the big name concerts, has super cheap drinks ($10 double rum and diets?  Yes please), and usually gives me an excuse to see my friend Bryan.  All-in-all, Bogarts and I go way back to the Invitro days, and whenever I see a concert tour that doesn’t come through Indy, my first thought is to cross my fingers and hope for a show at Bogart’s.

The Show:
I’ll just start off by telling you that the thing that made this concert stand out from others that I’ve seen recently was not the exceptional songs, or my love for the band, or even, really, their stage presence, but it was the variety and complexity of the show that kept it interesting and really made it great.

Quick aside….the opener, My Darkest Days, was AWESOME.  Best “unknown” opener I’ve seen in a long time.  Keep an eye on them.  They have blow-up potential.

Photo by Alicia Brown used via Creative Commons License

But, back to the headliner.  First things first.  Three Days Grace is absolutely dominated by their lead singer and front-man, Adam Gontier.  He is a musician I really respect, as he literally built this band from the ground up, with his own sweat and tears, and withstood major adversity to keep it going since he started it as Groundswell in 1993.  In addition, he overcame a severe addiction, and (unfortunately as often times happens) channeled the pain into motivation to write great music.  Now, completely sober, he completely owns the stage any time he is on it.  In fact, later in the show (which I’ll touch on), he actually had to leave the stage so the audience could focus on the drummer.

So, as far as song selection goes, there wasn’t any real surprises.  They played all their great songs.  Break, Pain, The Good Life, and I Don’t Care (which is technically an Apocalyptica cover, even though Adam helped write it) stick out in my head currently as songs that were really good live, as I knew they would be.  In addition, as I remembered from past shows, the song Riot is 3DG’s hidden gem.  Similar to songs like 10,000 fists (Disturbed), Electric Worry (Clutch), and Push It (Static-X), it’s a song that was just made to rock a crowd.  I loved it.

In addition, as a little bit of a curve ball, I was really impressed with how good the song Going Down was live.  Not my favorite song of theirs, but they spent a good deal of time working the crowd on this song, and it came across very well.

Now, on to the unique parts of the show that really made it stand out in my mind as far as creativity goes:

• About halfway through the show, out of nowhere, 3DG introduced one of their road crew members, who they deemed “The Hammer.”  He came out and did a quite incredible version of Limp Bizkit’s song Break Stuff.  This was both really awesome and scary.
  • It was awesome because regardless of if you like the song or not, when you are at a concert, with friends and booze, and someone on stage is screaming “GIVE ME SOMETHING TO BREAK,” its impossible not to have a great time. Please check it out here.  It’s worth it.
  • It was also deflating, because as the weekend Rock Band enthusiast who sometimes dreams that he will eventually give up his cubicle and be the lead singer of a game-changing band, its quite scary to think that this much talent is residing on someone’s ROAD CREW.  I mean, this dude sounds just fantastic, and he isn’t even technically in a band.  Ouch.
• They also did a really cool mash-up of Eminem’s Lose Yourself and the 3DG song Home.  I don’t really remember exactly what was great about this, but I remember the way they mixed the songs was cool.  I tried to find a video of that as well, but all I found were videos that induced immediate ear-bleeding, so I’ll spare you.
• The drum solo, which I usually (shockingly) find quite boring, was really good.  Particularly the part where he was drumming alone on stage, randomly stopped, stood up from the drums, and walked over to a keyboard.  He then proceeded to absolutely rock the keys.  In addition, he played some combo keys – electronic hand drums for a while.  I gotta deduce that Neil Sanderson is one talented dude.

Neil Sanderson playing keys.

• Their encore opener was Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin”.  Now, granted this song got a BIT boring about three quarters of the way through, it was a surprising and interesting way to take the beginning of the encore set.  Best of all, it gave Adam a chance to reaaallly flex the pipes.  And, the dude is just a great singer.  I mean, hes no Ryan Mitchell singing Green Day….but….he’s good (inside joke….don’t worry about it).

I mean, hes no Claudio Sanchez, but still…..awesome.